Chris Newton appointed GB women's endurance coach

Chris Newton has been appointed Great Britain's women's coach as part of a restructuring of the track endurance staff.

Last Updated: 03/05/13 11:23am

GB's women's pursuit team: Chris Newton to take charge

Newton will work with the women's squad, whilst Paul Manning works with the men, with both reporting to head coach Shane Sutton.

The restructure came about when Dan Hunt joined Team Sky and Newton - the academy coach and London 2012 women's road coach - filled the void at February's Track Cycling World Championships in Minsk by leading the men's squad.

Manning, Olympic team pursuit champion in 2008, led Britain's women's squad of Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King to team pursuit gold at London 2012. Trott also won the six-discipline omnium.

Newton's appointment could benefit Trott's performance in the bunch races and points race, in particular.

He won Olympic bronze in the event in 2008 and his expertise could improve Trott's weakest discipline, which could return to the track programme as a standalone event for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The women's team pursuit will shortly increase to four riders and four kilometres, with Britain having won five of the six world titles on offer over 3km. Elinor Barker combined with Trott and King to take gold in Minsk.

British Cycling performance director Sir Dave Brailsford said: "We've got a fantastic track record in the team pursuit and we have accumulated a wealth of knowledge of the discipline over previous Olympic Games.

"As the UCI has changed the women's team pursuit event to four riders over four kilometres, just like the men, it seems the perfect time for us to pool all this knowledge in order for the endurance riders to continue to perform optimally.

"In both Chris and Paul we have experienced and successful coaches who have also both competed themselves at Olympic level in the track endurance disciplines and I'm confident they can continue to move us forward as we progress along the road to Rio."